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coraaSo, having jettisoned all the stuff that doesn't work for me (see Part One: Things You Can Safely Ignore), what's left? (Note: You probably want to go read that one first, since it has important introductory information -- if nothing else, it will explain to you why I don't need you to enumerate why you don't want to use this system. ;) )
Basically, I use three parts of the FlyLady method: the Control Journal (which in turn is made up of sets of routines), Zone Cleaning, and the 15 Minutes Won't Kill You principle. Plus some miscellanea.
None of this is rocket science, and in fact many of you have probably independently invented a lot of these tips. But, as before, it's a set of systems that works for me, so.
1. The Control Journal, which is a collection of routines that you use to keep your house tidy. Essentially, the theory behind the routines is that people who are not naturally tidy have the most trouble with not noticing that something needs to be done around the house until it's dire, at which point it's overwhelming and depressing and horrible. The proposed solution is to create a set of routines so that you do things when they turn up on your routine sheet rather than waiting until they become so horrible that you can't ignore them.
Some of these routines are daily -- I have a morning routine and an evening one, in fact. So, for instance, my morning routine includes clearing mail and paper trash off the flat surfaces in the living room, clearing and wiping down the counters, running a damp washcloth over the surfaces in the bathroom, and... something else, but I can't think of it offhand. Oh, and figuring out what to cook for dinner and defrosting it if necessary. My evening routine consists of clearing the counters again (this is post-dinner), dusting, picking up ten things that are not in their proper places and putting them away, and returning all dishes to the kitchen so that they're ready for the next dishwasher run. I do this even if there's only, e.g., one glass to return, because that means I don't have to face the task when there are thirty glasses scattered around the house. Some days I miss a routine, some days my 'morning' routine doesn't get done until afternoon, but the principle of doing it more or less every day, as much as possible, means that nothing builds up until it's horrible. (I also do fifteen minutes of decluttering, either in the morning or the evening, because there are places in the house that need more focused effort; the hope is that once I've done that long enough, I'll be able to slip it to weekly or even monthly on the schedule.) So you figure out what you think needs to be done every day (say you're okay with the office getting a little cluttery, but you want the table clear, damn it), and you break those up into two or three routines (morning, after work and evening/before bed work nicely). Ideally, you should have few enough critical daily items that it will only take you fifteen minutes to get them done. The suggested way to do this is to print out your daily routines and stick them in sheet protectors, and then use a dry-erase marker to strike them off every day as you do them. I do this, because I find it very satisfying to cross things off when I'm done with them. If you don't care, you could skip the sheet protectors and just use the list as a reminder.
Some routines are tied to days of the week. For example, maybe I do laundry on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, maybe I run the roomba in the living room on Tuesdays and the bedroom on Thursdays. Maybe Wednesday is my errands day, and Tuesday is when I do meal planning and make a shopping list. Maybe I do the bulk of my gardening on Sunday. Each of these are things that are done not daily but at least once a week. Exactly what goes on the list, and when, depends on my schedule and what chores are important to me -- window washing doesn't make it on the weekly list for me, but if you are a fan of sparkling windows, maybe you add it. Or maybe I put 'meal planning' on my weekly list because cooking is a big deal for me, but you eat out for most of your meals (or eat frozen entrees, or whatever) so it's irrelevant to you, and so you leave it off. If you don't have a garden, then you won't have a gardening item, naturally. That's fine. The point is: figure out what you think needs to be done at least once a week, and put that on your routine for the week. Again, the suggested way to do this is to create a one-page routine list for each day of the week, and strike things off as you do them, but you don't need to. You probably shouldn't put more than half an hour to an hour's worth of stuff for each day (although some things, like gardening or laundry, may take a bit longer), just because if you have too much on your list, the temptation to skip it will be great.
If you're really into it, you can also create monthly routines (First Saturday! Second Saturday!) for things that only need to be done once a month. I don't bother, but you certainly could.
Again, the point is: figure out what needs to be done and roughly how often, put it on the list, and when it comes up in the list, just do it. That way it never gets so bad that you just want to dig a hole and hide in it. (Can you tell I speak from experience?)
(And again, reskin it with any aesthetic that you like. I'm thinking of putting literary quotes in the dividers of my control journal binder, and/or more anime character pictures. Because they make me happy. If you are made happy by pictures of Johnny Depp or LOLCats, hey, whatever. Or if you like clean and spartan with elegant typefaces and no images whatsoever, go for that.)
2. Zone cleaning. Zone cleaning is sort of like a metaroutine. The theory behind it is that, rather than have freakout cleaning days once a month/season/year, where you scrub under everything and dust on top of everything and then collapse and die and refuse to do it until the next month/season/year, you work your way through each 'zone' of your house one week at a time, all month. So the first week (which is often a 2-3 day 'short week'), you focus on your entryway and dining room; the next week, you focus on your kitchen; the next week, you focus on your bathroom and an 'extra' room (like a guest bedroom or your office); the next week, you focus on the master bedroom; and the last week (which is also often a 2-3 day 'short week') you focus on the living room.
Basically, on weekdays, on top of your routines, you will spend 15 minutes a day in your zone, doing more in-depth cleaning. So maybe your weekly routine covers basic living room vacuuming, but one day a month when you're in the 'living room' zone you'll actually move the furniture, rescue the cat toys from under it, and vacuum there. Maybe your weekly routine covers wiping down the counters, but one day a month when you're in the 'kitchen' zone you actually move the small counter appliances and get the toast crumbs and coffee grounds that have been lurking under them. The theory is that as you work your way through the zones, fifteen minutes a day, you will eventually, bit by bit, get the whole house clean -- so you never have to do 'spring cleaning' and spend all day on it.
I actually put 'do zone cleaning' on my daily routines, so that I remember. This is also the only thing I use the mailing list for: the 'flight plan' has a zone cleaning mission every day, to give you ideas for what you can do in your zone that particular day. (As I said, I send pretty much all other e-mails to Trash.) If you don't want to use the mailing list for that, though, you can make up a list of chores that ought to be done eventually, and just work your way through them, fifteen minutes at a time, zone by zone. ("First thing on the kitchen list: wash the floor. Fifteen minutes, go. Tomorrow, second thing on the list: wipe down the fronts of the counters. Fifteen minutes, go.") Eventually you'll get 'em done.
If your house is full of clutter, the website suggests skipping the zone missions and decluttering for fifteen minutes in your zone instead, until you've got things more or less put away, on the principle that it's really hard to clean around clutter. I actually agree with this, and have been doing decluttering in the office, whereas the kitchen is ready for proper zone cleaning. If you're more bothered by dirt than by clutter, you could alternate, doing a zone cleaning mission one day, decluttering the next. If you realio trulio don't care about clutter, you could skip the decluttering entirely, although it is easier to clean things if they don't have stuff piled on them.
3. Fifteen Minutes Won't Kill You. This is probably the most useful thing I've picked up: I can make myself clean for fifteen minutes if I know I get to stop at the end. Whenever I start cleaning, I set a timer for fifteen minutes. When the timer goes off, I get to stop. Even if it's not done. (If the given task does get done before fifteen minutes, I also get to stop, yay me. But if it's not done, I have to keep working until the timer goes 'ding.')
The result of this is that I don't clean for four hours, become exhausted, use that as a reason to not clean for two weeks such that the house becoems a disaster again, lather rinse repeat. If I know I can stop after fifteen minutes, I can convince myself to do it every day, and a little every day is a big help.
I wind up spending between half an hour and an hour on housework daily: five to fifteen minutes for the morning routine, then after work, fifteen minutes of 'day-of-the-week tasks' after work and ten to fifteen mintues of decluttering or zone cleaning after work, and before bed five to fifteen minutes for the evening routine. I could strip that down if half an hour to an hour seemed like so much I was going to get demoralized; if all you can manage is fifteen minutes total, that's still better than nothing. Half an hour to an hour is my sweet spot for getting enough done to feel like I'm making progress, without getting exhausted and demoralized. Mileage may vary. But doing it in blocks of no more than fifteen minutes makes it seem a lot more bearable.
4. Miscellanea. A few additional elements of the system that work for me, and may or may not work for you:
* Hot Spot Patrol. This is where you identify one or two places where papers and junk and clutter always seem to land in your house, and spend one to two minutes (no more) putting out the 'fires' in those areas. For me, it's the living room coffee table and the space next to my bed in the bedroom. I put a 2-minute Hot Spot Patrol in the morning and evening routine to nuke those spots.
* 27-fling. This isn't useful if you've already stripped your belongings down to the minimum, but until you reach that point: you go around the house until you've collected 27 things to get rid of. They can be items of trash (27 pieces of junk mail does count), or things to donate to Goodwill, or borrowed things to return to their owners, or things to give away, or even things like mail that needs to be taken to the post office or library books to return. It's just a way of getting 27 things out of your house that you don't need, want or love. As I have unconscious packrat tendencies, this is useful for me. (Why 27 things? I have no idea. Pick another number if you'd rather.)
* Decluttering. One of my favorite tips is to get three boxes or bags to put in a room you're decluttering -- one for things to throw away, one for things to give away, and one for things to put away. As you clean, you just chuck anything that doesn't belong in the relevant box. At the end of the decluttering, you put everything away at once. Much more efficient than leaving the room to put things away one at a time.
And that's it. If anyone is curious as to what's on my personal routines/zone cleaning schedules/etc, I'd be happy to share that.
Basically, I use three parts of the FlyLady method: the Control Journal (which in turn is made up of sets of routines), Zone Cleaning, and the 15 Minutes Won't Kill You principle. Plus some miscellanea.
None of this is rocket science, and in fact many of you have probably independently invented a lot of these tips. But, as before, it's a set of systems that works for me, so.
1. The Control Journal, which is a collection of routines that you use to keep your house tidy. Essentially, the theory behind the routines is that people who are not naturally tidy have the most trouble with not noticing that something needs to be done around the house until it's dire, at which point it's overwhelming and depressing and horrible. The proposed solution is to create a set of routines so that you do things when they turn up on your routine sheet rather than waiting until they become so horrible that you can't ignore them.
Some of these routines are daily -- I have a morning routine and an evening one, in fact. So, for instance, my morning routine includes clearing mail and paper trash off the flat surfaces in the living room, clearing and wiping down the counters, running a damp washcloth over the surfaces in the bathroom, and... something else, but I can't think of it offhand. Oh, and figuring out what to cook for dinner and defrosting it if necessary. My evening routine consists of clearing the counters again (this is post-dinner), dusting, picking up ten things that are not in their proper places and putting them away, and returning all dishes to the kitchen so that they're ready for the next dishwasher run. I do this even if there's only, e.g., one glass to return, because that means I don't have to face the task when there are thirty glasses scattered around the house. Some days I miss a routine, some days my 'morning' routine doesn't get done until afternoon, but the principle of doing it more or less every day, as much as possible, means that nothing builds up until it's horrible. (I also do fifteen minutes of decluttering, either in the morning or the evening, because there are places in the house that need more focused effort; the hope is that once I've done that long enough, I'll be able to slip it to weekly or even monthly on the schedule.) So you figure out what you think needs to be done every day (say you're okay with the office getting a little cluttery, but you want the table clear, damn it), and you break those up into two or three routines (morning, after work and evening/before bed work nicely). Ideally, you should have few enough critical daily items that it will only take you fifteen minutes to get them done. The suggested way to do this is to print out your daily routines and stick them in sheet protectors, and then use a dry-erase marker to strike them off every day as you do them. I do this, because I find it very satisfying to cross things off when I'm done with them. If you don't care, you could skip the sheet protectors and just use the list as a reminder.
Some routines are tied to days of the week. For example, maybe I do laundry on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, maybe I run the roomba in the living room on Tuesdays and the bedroom on Thursdays. Maybe Wednesday is my errands day, and Tuesday is when I do meal planning and make a shopping list. Maybe I do the bulk of my gardening on Sunday. Each of these are things that are done not daily but at least once a week. Exactly what goes on the list, and when, depends on my schedule and what chores are important to me -- window washing doesn't make it on the weekly list for me, but if you are a fan of sparkling windows, maybe you add it. Or maybe I put 'meal planning' on my weekly list because cooking is a big deal for me, but you eat out for most of your meals (or eat frozen entrees, or whatever) so it's irrelevant to you, and so you leave it off. If you don't have a garden, then you won't have a gardening item, naturally. That's fine. The point is: figure out what you think needs to be done at least once a week, and put that on your routine for the week. Again, the suggested way to do this is to create a one-page routine list for each day of the week, and strike things off as you do them, but you don't need to. You probably shouldn't put more than half an hour to an hour's worth of stuff for each day (although some things, like gardening or laundry, may take a bit longer), just because if you have too much on your list, the temptation to skip it will be great.
If you're really into it, you can also create monthly routines (First Saturday! Second Saturday!) for things that only need to be done once a month. I don't bother, but you certainly could.
Again, the point is: figure out what needs to be done and roughly how often, put it on the list, and when it comes up in the list, just do it. That way it never gets so bad that you just want to dig a hole and hide in it. (Can you tell I speak from experience?)
(And again, reskin it with any aesthetic that you like. I'm thinking of putting literary quotes in the dividers of my control journal binder, and/or more anime character pictures. Because they make me happy. If you are made happy by pictures of Johnny Depp or LOLCats, hey, whatever. Or if you like clean and spartan with elegant typefaces and no images whatsoever, go for that.)
2. Zone cleaning. Zone cleaning is sort of like a metaroutine. The theory behind it is that, rather than have freakout cleaning days once a month/season/year, where you scrub under everything and dust on top of everything and then collapse and die and refuse to do it until the next month/season/year, you work your way through each 'zone' of your house one week at a time, all month. So the first week (which is often a 2-3 day 'short week'), you focus on your entryway and dining room; the next week, you focus on your kitchen; the next week, you focus on your bathroom and an 'extra' room (like a guest bedroom or your office); the next week, you focus on the master bedroom; and the last week (which is also often a 2-3 day 'short week') you focus on the living room.
Basically, on weekdays, on top of your routines, you will spend 15 minutes a day in your zone, doing more in-depth cleaning. So maybe your weekly routine covers basic living room vacuuming, but one day a month when you're in the 'living room' zone you'll actually move the furniture, rescue the cat toys from under it, and vacuum there. Maybe your weekly routine covers wiping down the counters, but one day a month when you're in the 'kitchen' zone you actually move the small counter appliances and get the toast crumbs and coffee grounds that have been lurking under them. The theory is that as you work your way through the zones, fifteen minutes a day, you will eventually, bit by bit, get the whole house clean -- so you never have to do 'spring cleaning' and spend all day on it.
I actually put 'do zone cleaning' on my daily routines, so that I remember. This is also the only thing I use the mailing list for: the 'flight plan' has a zone cleaning mission every day, to give you ideas for what you can do in your zone that particular day. (As I said, I send pretty much all other e-mails to Trash.) If you don't want to use the mailing list for that, though, you can make up a list of chores that ought to be done eventually, and just work your way through them, fifteen minutes at a time, zone by zone. ("First thing on the kitchen list: wash the floor. Fifteen minutes, go. Tomorrow, second thing on the list: wipe down the fronts of the counters. Fifteen minutes, go.") Eventually you'll get 'em done.
If your house is full of clutter, the website suggests skipping the zone missions and decluttering for fifteen minutes in your zone instead, until you've got things more or less put away, on the principle that it's really hard to clean around clutter. I actually agree with this, and have been doing decluttering in the office, whereas the kitchen is ready for proper zone cleaning. If you're more bothered by dirt than by clutter, you could alternate, doing a zone cleaning mission one day, decluttering the next. If you realio trulio don't care about clutter, you could skip the decluttering entirely, although it is easier to clean things if they don't have stuff piled on them.
3. Fifteen Minutes Won't Kill You. This is probably the most useful thing I've picked up: I can make myself clean for fifteen minutes if I know I get to stop at the end. Whenever I start cleaning, I set a timer for fifteen minutes. When the timer goes off, I get to stop. Even if it's not done. (If the given task does get done before fifteen minutes, I also get to stop, yay me. But if it's not done, I have to keep working until the timer goes 'ding.')
The result of this is that I don't clean for four hours, become exhausted, use that as a reason to not clean for two weeks such that the house becoems a disaster again, lather rinse repeat. If I know I can stop after fifteen minutes, I can convince myself to do it every day, and a little every day is a big help.
I wind up spending between half an hour and an hour on housework daily: five to fifteen minutes for the morning routine, then after work, fifteen minutes of 'day-of-the-week tasks' after work and ten to fifteen mintues of decluttering or zone cleaning after work, and before bed five to fifteen minutes for the evening routine. I could strip that down if half an hour to an hour seemed like so much I was going to get demoralized; if all you can manage is fifteen minutes total, that's still better than nothing. Half an hour to an hour is my sweet spot for getting enough done to feel like I'm making progress, without getting exhausted and demoralized. Mileage may vary. But doing it in blocks of no more than fifteen minutes makes it seem a lot more bearable.
4. Miscellanea. A few additional elements of the system that work for me, and may or may not work for you:
* Hot Spot Patrol. This is where you identify one or two places where papers and junk and clutter always seem to land in your house, and spend one to two minutes (no more) putting out the 'fires' in those areas. For me, it's the living room coffee table and the space next to my bed in the bedroom. I put a 2-minute Hot Spot Patrol in the morning and evening routine to nuke those spots.
* 27-fling. This isn't useful if you've already stripped your belongings down to the minimum, but until you reach that point: you go around the house until you've collected 27 things to get rid of. They can be items of trash (27 pieces of junk mail does count), or things to donate to Goodwill, or borrowed things to return to their owners, or things to give away, or even things like mail that needs to be taken to the post office or library books to return. It's just a way of getting 27 things out of your house that you don't need, want or love. As I have unconscious packrat tendencies, this is useful for me. (Why 27 things? I have no idea. Pick another number if you'd rather.)
* Decluttering. One of my favorite tips is to get three boxes or bags to put in a room you're decluttering -- one for things to throw away, one for things to give away, and one for things to put away. As you clean, you just chuck anything that doesn't belong in the relevant box. At the end of the decluttering, you put everything away at once. Much more efficient than leaving the room to put things away one at a time.
And that's it. If anyone is curious as to what's on my personal routines/zone cleaning schedules/etc, I'd be happy to share that.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 04:27 pm (UTC)I've considered hiring someone to come by and do vacuuming/floor-cleaning/dusting, just so that I have a clean 'baseline' to start from every two weeks or every month. It seems like it might help.